A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.

February 10, 2008

Thank you US housing market! Thank you realtors! Thank you mortgage brokers! Thank you appraisers! Thank you homebuilders! Thank you housing gamblers!

What's the next set of numbers called after "trillion"? I think we'll need to learn that one soon.

World bourses lost 5.2 trillion dollars in January

World stockmarkets lost 5.2 trillion dollars (3.6 trillion euros) in January thanks to the fallout from the US subprime crisis and fears of a global economic slowdown, Standard & Poor's said Saturday.

"If investors thought the market could only go up, January's wake-up call pulled them back into reality," the independent credit ratings' provider said.

Standard & Poor's said the world's equity markets lost a combined 5.2 trillion dollars as emerging markets fell 12.44 percent and developed markets lost 7.83 percent to register one of the worst starts to a new year.

Does anyone have any links from unbiased sources to find out how deeply a bank is exposed to real estate risk, or what shape it's in, in general?.

The customer service rep at my local bank assured me a while back that their exposure to real estate losses was minimal to non-existant, and I had no reason to doubt her. It was a very conservative, small local bank. It was Hell trying to get a loan on a good day!

However, my bank just got swallowed up by a larger bank, AGAIN (second time in two years)! The old neighborhood bank is now reduced to being just a cog in a much larger entity that I know nothing about except by name.

This is just starting. Five year lows will be tested soon in all of the major indexes. The buy and hold strategy loses again. Suckers buy and hold. Soon people that were underwater from the last 2000-2001 crash will be back underwater even after dollar averaging. No retirement. Work until you drop dead and the coroner will pick up your corpse for burial.

Funny reading the clowns who think the FED sets rates. They follow. You can't force people to borrow. Dopes.